The US Department of State on Wednesday introduced phasing out of the font ‘Times New Roman’ in all official communications in favour of ‘Calibri’, citing points associated to “points for people with disabilities.”

In a statement issued by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, department employees were informed of the change with the subject, “The Times (New Roman) Are a-Changing,” in response to a tweet by The Washington Post reporter John Hudson.

“Secretary Blinken has directed the Department to undertake Calibri, a Sans Serif font in 14-point font, for all paper submitted to the Executive Secretariat,” the statement read.

Calling for a phasing out of the popular font from February 6, it orders “domestic offices and bureaus, as well as posts overseas, also should adopt Calibri as the standard font for all requested paper in support of creating a more accessible Department.”

Hudson additional said that the change was not resulting from aesthetics however resulting from points for people with disabilities. “Apparently the change was made as a result of fonts with serifs create “points for people with disabilities,” per the cable i obtained,” he added.

New Serif in Town

Calibri, a digital sans-serif typeface, which had been the default font for Microsoft since 2007 because it changed Times New Roman, was changed throughout Microsoft Office on 2021.

In 2021, Microsoft commissioned 5 authentic, customized fonts to ultimately exchange Calibri because the default, these had been: Tenorite, Bierstadt, Skeena, Seaford, and Grandview.

Announcing the choice in 2021, Microsoft had defined: “A default font is commonly the primary impression we make; it’s the visible id we current to different folks through our resumes, paperwork, or emails. And simply as folks and the world round us age and develop, so too ought to our modes of expression.”

The recent US State Department’s decision is a major shift after 20 years and goes back to its big jump from serif typefaces to sans serif, a shift that began in 2004 when Times New Roman 14 emerged as the “new” font on the scene, changing Courier New 12.

According to an Entrepreneur report, the popularisation of Serif fonts can be linked to accessibility points for folks with disabilities who use Optical Character Recognition expertise or display readers.

Calibri’s designer, Lucas de Groot created Calibri within the early 2000s as a part of a set of fonts for enhanced display studying, in response to The Wired.

After Microsoft launched its ClearType expertise in 2000s, which optimised resolutions on LCD screens, fonts corresponding to Calibri made texts simpler to learn.

What About Times New Roman?

Times New Roman was created by the British typographer Stanley Morison for the Times of London in 1932, in response to the New York Public Library.

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